What English Language Teachers Need To Know

Volume I, Volume II
D. E. Murray and M. Christison
Routledge 2011, 224 and 240 pp., 25.99 and 25.99
isbns 978 0 415 80639 8 and 978 0 415 80641 1

Volume I in its four parts provides the reader

with background information on different aspects
of Identity and context, Language awareness,
Learning, and Professionalism, while the three
parts of Volume II focus on Planning, Instructing
for learning, and Assessing for learning, i.e. they
move towards the classroom.
Each chapter follows the same format. It begins
with a vignette that gives a description of an
actual learning, teaching, or training situation and
serves to contextualize the chapter in a true to life
way, to bring the subject matter off the page. The
chapters are then interspersed with reflect, explore,
and expand tasks, and finish with questions for
discussion, references to further reading including
websites, and chapter references. These interactive
features break up text that is in quite small print and
academic in style, though clear and well written.

The areas covered in Volume I are shown in Table 1.

Part I
Identity and context

Part II
Language awareness

Part III
Learning

Part IV
Professionalism

Learner identities
The world of English
English language learning
around the world
The cultural context
Learning about identity
and setting

The sound system

The system of words
The sentence system
Beyond the sentence:
spoken and written
language

Theories of learning
An introduction to second
language acquisition
Second language acquisition
and second language
pedagogy
Learning theories in the
classroom

Sustaining
professionalism

The focus on identity and context in Part I is

thorough and comprehensive. It puts an emphasis
on issues in these areas at the right place in such
a series, enabling the reader to take on board
the importance of context in its many facets. The
reader coming to the end of Part I will have read
about different definitions of identity, English
in the Inner, Outer, and Expanding circles, and
how these factors impact on learning, different

1
Areas covered in Volume I

table

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What English Language Teachers Need To Know

consists of two volumes, Volume I: Understanding
Learning and Volume II: Facilitating Learning.
It is organized around the question: What do
teachers need to know and be able to do in order
for their students to learn English?. The authors
state that it is designed for pre-service teachers
and teachers new to the field of ELTJ (see http://
www.scribd.com/doc/45567908/What-EnglishLanguage-Teachers-Need-to-Know-Volume-IUnderstanding-Learning).

Since the 1980s there has been much discussion

in teacher training of knowing how versus knowing
that. In the 1980s, Schn (1983) emphasized
knowing in action. He proposed that practitioners
finding themselves in situations that are ill defined,
messy, and full of uncertainties (for example the
classroom) make sense of these through reference
to experience, trial and error, intuition and
muddling through (ibid.: 43). He also proposed
that this kind of knowledge is developed through
reflection, i.e. looking at a problem or phenomenon
after or during action, and from that arriving at
a new understanding. Yates and Brindley (2000:
1)have said teachers learn by doing, by reflecting
and solving problems, and by working together in a
supportive environment. This experiential approach
stands in contrast to models of teaching knowledge
that emphasize the conceptual or analytical, for
example Grossman (1990), Day and Conklin
(1992). What English Language Teachers Need To
Know generally adheres to promoting conceptual
or analytical knowledge as opposed to learning by
doing. With the exception of several very useful
sets of tips and techniques (see below) and some
practical tasks, these volumes are mostly overviews
of research and discussion in the areas mentioned.

Part II looks at language systems. It is factual

and clear with perhaps some overuse of
jargon, for example a circumfix, a singleton,
a phonogram. The coverage and explanation
of phonemes, syllables, assimilation, elision,
and linking in Chapter 6 are very thorough but
intonation is very lightly touched on, and word and
sentence stress given little space. In Chapter 7 (on
lexis) there is systematic treatment of morphology,
but a surprising absence of discussion of chunks,
collocations, different types of meaning, and
relationships between words. The corpus work
on vocabulary of, for example, Paul Nation or
Carter and McCarthy is also not mentioned.
With just one chapter on grammar, the focus is
necessarily selective. The chapter provides a clear
and comprehensive description of parts of speech
and sentence types but there is no mention of, for
example, lexico-grammar or form, meaning, and
use, leaving the reader with a limited view of the
scope of grammar. Chapter 9, the final chapter
in Part I, focuses on discourse and succinctly
covers core concepts such as spoken versus
written language, the differences between various
discourse analysis traditions, cohesion, coherence,

register, and genre, though it gives little space to

contributions coming from work on functional
linguistics.
Part III provides an overview of researchinto
learning, language learning, and learner
characteristics. It is well written and comprehensive,
covering essential standard areas as outlined in
the table above. It provides the reader with an
insight into the general state of knowledge in the
field, though discussion of, for example, the debate
over focus on form, hypothesis formation and
connectionism, the roles of exposure to language,
input, noticing, and feedback would have helped to
make this part more up to date.
Volume I ends with an excellent chapter on
Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
that brings together into one place discussion of
different aspects of the area such as the applied
science, mentoring, and reflective teaching models
of CPD, the wide range of types of CPD including
volunteerism, as well as providing questionnaires
and checklists for engaging in CPD. The chapter
provides teachers with a set of tools they could
immediately employ for CPD, and a framework
for understanding the approaches, scope, and
purposes of CPD.
Generally speaking, Volume Iprovides the
background information to teaching that it sets
out to. It is wide in scope, though as mentioned
above, there are some omissions, and the volume
as a whole works at an abstract level, generally
through providing research syntheses and
updates. The volume does not provide guidance
or hands-on tips as to how issues or points might
be dealt with in the classroom.
Volume II looks at planning, instructing, and
assessing for learning. The authors say

Part I
Planning

Part II
Instructing for learning

Part III
Assessing for learning

Planning curriculum
Planning lesson content
Planning activities and managing
classroom interaction
Selecting and adapting materials

Teaching young learners

Teaching adolescent learners
Adult immigrants and refugees
Post-secondary adult learners
Workplace literacy
Integrating language and content
Exploring ones own instruction

Formative and alternative

assessment
Large-scale assessment
Programme evaluation

2
Areas covered in Volume II

table

156 Reviews

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classroom groups around the world (for example

immigrants and refugees, international students),
and the cultures within which classrooms operate.
Teachers will also have been provided with tools
(questions and questionnaires) to help them
investigate the cultures within which they each
teach. Overall, Part I provides a useful summary
of recent research in these areas and makes the
reader very aware of the wide range of contexts in
which language teaching operates, marking clearly
that the series does not intend to cater only for
those working in specific contexts such as private
language schools in regions in which English is
the first language.

the challenge of successful teaching is to know

how to blend an understanding of learners,
language, and language learning with knowledge
of their content goals and how to achieve their
goals. This is the subject of Volume II. (p. xiii)
The areas covered in Volume II are shown in Table 2:

Part II provides a description of several key learner

groups, their different learning needs, and related
key teaching strategies. The chapters help once
again to make us aware of the wide range of
contexts in which English language is taught and
the wide range of expertise needed to cater for
them. This part finishes with a chapter on teacher
beliefs. It provides readers with several useful sets
of questions, observation sheets, and checklists that
teachers could use to identify their own beliefs and
classroom practice. It does not discuss the recent
literature (for example Tsui 2003; Borg 2009) on
the role teacher beliefs play in facilitating or braking
teacher development and classroom practices.
Part III discusses assessment. Chapter 12 includes
a helpful discussion of ways in which oral formative
assessment can be carried out and outlines
eight techniques that can be used in alternative
assessment, i.e. assessment that is an alternative
to the traditional forms of assessment, such as
true/false or multiple choice (p. 190). Chapter 13,
which focuses on large scale assessment, includes
some useful discussion of direct and indirect
assessment tasks, for example the design of
multiple choice items. Chapter 14 focuses on that
sometimes forgotten aspect of assessment which
is programme assessment. It describes several
kinds of English language teaching programmes
that might require evaluation and provides a
comprehensive introductory overview of the area
Reviews

As we have seen, What English Language Teachers

Need To Know covers a large number of areas of
teacher knowledge. The authors recognize that what
a teacher needs to know is wide in scope, and set
out to cover essential areas. They do this through a
mixture of research review and practical guidance
that generally prioritizes knowing that over
knowing how. The series provides an interesting,
if somewhat abstract, introduction to the areas or
a refresher for those getting out of touch, making
readers well aware of issues involved. This content
could be of value on a long teacher development
course, possibly within a degree framework, where
the issues it raises could lead on to further reading,
research, or trial application. It could also be
useful on a dip-in basis for those wishing to give
themselves an initial familiarization with issues in
particular areas. Its slant towards the theoretical
and lack of a hands-on focus mean it is unlikely
to be of use on the many practical short courses
offered for pre-service teachers, teachers new to the
field of ELT, or to people working to take Cambridge
Assessments TKT test.
References
Borg, S. 2009. Teacher Cognition and Language
Education: Research and Practice. London:
Continuum.
Day, R. R. and G.Conklin. 1992. The knowledge
base in ESL/EFL teacher education. Paper
presented at the 1992 TESOL Conference,
Vancouver, Canada.
Grossman, P. 1990. The Making of a Teacher. New
York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Schn, D. A. 1983. The Reflective Practitioner.
London: Basic Books.
Tsui A. 2003. Understanding Expertise in Teaching.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Yates, L. and G.Brindley. 2000. Editorial. Prospect
15/3: 14.
The reviewer
Mary Spratt is a freelance ELT consultant. She is
involved in teacher development, writing, research,
assessment, and teaching. She has published
several ELT coursebooks and books for ELT teachers.
Email: [email protected]
doi:10.1093/elt/ccs074

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Chapter1 in Planning, with its clear discussion of

different kinds of curriculum, sets the scene for
the following chapters in Part I.This part, as can
be seen from the table, is ambitious in its scope.
Given space restrictions, it cannot fully embrace
the issues involved or follow up on their impact in
the classroom. Useful considerations, examples,
and techniques are nevertheless brought to the
readers notice, for example a sample unit of work,
sample lesson plans, sample graphic organizers,
techniques for managing transitions, different
questioning strategies and activity types, discussion
of different kinds of classroom interaction. These
are provided while bearing different teaching
contexts in mind. It is not easy to provide a
comprehensive and well-framed range of practical
ideas for such a range of contexts, however.

for those who may wish to become involved in

it. While the contents of Part III are clear and
systematically addressed, given space restrictions
they are necessarily selective, as the authors
themselves admit.